Michael Jackson. The name sparks a shower of words and thoughts; tragic, talented, genius, dancer, singer, joke, wacko and possible pedophile. A true musician or artist is cut from a different bolt of cloth than the rest of us and Michael’s bolt was more different still. Michael Jackson was a genius and apart from the waste of his death, the circus his life became was the true tragedy.

I recently watched the video he made in 1991for his song ‘Black or White’. It was as fresh as I remember it back then. John Landis directed it and the amusing intro that featured Macaulay Culkin and George Wendt was a forgotten treat. The faces that morphed from one to another at the end of the video amazed me back then and still today. (Did you know Tyra Banks was one of the morphing heads?) Michael Jackson really raised the bar on music videos with ‘Thriller’ and then ‘Black or White’.

As great as the video was, I want to highlight a message in it. Michael sings that it don’t matter if you want to be his baby (or his brother), it don’t matter if you’re black or white (or any other colour as the morphing faces suggest) and this is the primary message. However, I want to turn the spotlight on the secondary message embodied in the rap.

Protection: for gangs, clubs and nations

Causing grief in human relations

It’s a turf war, on a global scale

I’d rather hear both sides of the tale

See it’s not about races; just places; faces;

Where your blood comes from.

It’s where your space is

I’ve seen the bright get duller

I’m not gonna spend my life bein’ a colour.

Rapping was still a novelty back then and it overshadowed the important message in it. What the rap was telling us is the problem with humanity is our inherent us/them mentality. It’s resulted in history being a global turf war that’s not about races; it’s about protecting the spaces where your ‘blood’ comes from.

Having a geographic ‘my space’ and ‘your space’ is what we have to get past. We are all one; sharing one space, earth. Humanity is certainly not about being a colour, it’s about all colours sharing.

Great timeless message Michael. People – listen and hear, “We are all one”.